BUSINESS RATES AND PUBS

That this House is deeply concerned about the planned increases in business rates and the damage they will do to many small businesses; notes the impact that those changes will have on pubs, with some pubs seeing rises of up to 300 per cent and with London pubs seeing an average rise of 43 per cent in business rates; further notes with dismay that the calculations that have created those proposed rises are based on turnover figures from 2008; notes that the situation facing pubs has changed dramatically since that time so that those figures are now hugely unrealistic and such rate rises would cause many pubs to become unviable; calls on the Government to take urgent action to cap business rate rises for pubs and restaurants as has been announced in Scotland; further calls on the Government to halt this ill-considered business rate rise until a full and proper re-evaluation has taken place which takes in to account the current state of the economy in the pub sector; notes that pubs currently pay over five times their fair share of business rates; calls on the Government to recognise the important role pubs play in communities and local economies and to acknowledge this when making future calculations for business rates for pubs; believes that in the longer term pubs need a different form of business taxation that is not predicate on turnover or size of a pub, neither of which work for pubs and threatens otherwise viable pub businesses.